Saturday 16 November 2013

A Sharing from Biochem

So in order to make my biochem critical-study more interesting, I would relate it to our typical life situation (not really a typical life for Muslims, as we do not drink alcoholic drinks) :

For science students out there, we were taught, at least in high school, about anaerobic fermentation of glucose (a type of simple sugar) that will produce alcohol (ethanol) in fungi (yeast). for this to be possible, 2 enzymes, pyruvate decarboxylase and ethanol dehydrogenase, are needed. These 2-step reactions will produce an intermediate known as acetaldehyde, a toxic compound.

pyruvate --> via pyruvate decarboxylase --> acetaldehyde --> via alcohol dehydrogenase --> ethanol

now, let's relate this to the Mercy of Allah,

He has created humans to have alcohol dehydrogenase so that whosoever consumes alcohol, can still metabolize it to acetaldehyde (just reverse the equation above). But it is still a toxic.

And humans, fortunately, do not posses pyruvate decarboxylase because if so, then humans will produce energy (pyruvate is the energy product during the absence of oxygen. It is the energy-production process in the cytoplasm, which you don't really need oxygen to run the process), in the absence of oxygen, along with a toxic compound, acetaldehyde.

Yes, truly the production of energy is not only necessary, but also needed. It's a happy ending - you have more energy, you can do more things. But that happy ending comes with a price - your own life.

As if you are consuming the elixir of life to gain more strength, but the strength is eating you alive from within.
Do you get it?

In the Islamic law, it is haram to consume alcoholic drinks or anything that can lead to a state of drunk. It is said that a Muslim who drinks drunk-inducing alcoholic drinks (or of anything related), his or her prayers shall not be accepted for 40 days. Now my friend, I heard from a renown Ustad back in Malaysia who said during the Day of Judgment, even if the person carries the deeds of 70 prophets, he still has a shaky confident of entering Heaven after hearing the sound of Hell. And who are we, to miss a single prayer, let alone 200 obligatory prayers in the course of 40 days? Wallahu'alam, my friend, I'm in no place to discuss more of this as I cannot run away from my sins either. But sharing is caring right? Let's care for each other. :) May Allah forgives all of our sins, ameen.

The point here is, despite His order for people to refrain from drinking alcoholic drinks, He still provide us with a way out, a way out from living a misery hell of our body collecting poisons due to our bad desires for drinking.

I may have wronged here, for I'm just a student trying to get something other that expressing the knowledge on MCQ bubble sheets. So share your knowledge with me :)

Allah ar-Rahman is so Merciful, so Compassionate. Allah says in the Qur'an that you don't have to go far to know Him, just look within yourself. ;D


haram: something or an action that is highly sinful and is truly, really, really seriously, unacceptable according to the Islamic law.

Ustad: an Islamic male teacher